CoD Black Ops Multiplayer Reveal

From 2am BST, Thursday September 2.

It's not often we report live from a single-game press event, but when that game is the latest Call of Duty the rule book goes out the window.

Staff writer Jamin Smith is reporting live from LA at Treyarch and Activision's multiplayer reveal press event. We don't know what to expect - rumours suggests a beta test will be confirmed - but rest assured we'll bring you the info as fast as Jamin's fingers can hit the keys on his tiny netbook.

The updates should start coming in at around 2am BST on Thursday, September 2.

The following live report has now ended.

03:07:23

Good morning all! It's actually evening here in LA, 7:06 to be precise, and I (Jamin Smith) am sat in an IMAX theatre on the expansive campus of some strange kind of science musuem.

03:08:44

Things are late to get started here, so thanks for staying up this late to see what's happening. There are numerous rumours circulating about what the multiplayer reveal could be this evening, but in truth, nobody really has a clue.

03:10:34

I'll try and Twitpic a few pics of the event from my trusty iPhone, so check out www.twitter.com/JaminVG for some sneaky snaps. /plug

03:11:11

The event looks like it's about to get started (it just got very dark!)

03:11:32

Right, some gameplay footage is playing out on the screen. Multiplayer, of course.

03:14:03

Apologies, internet died. Daniel Saurez, executive producer on the game is now on the stage, thanking us for being here and generally introducing the game.

03:15:03

He's promising us food, booze and, of course, some hands on time with the game. Jealous much?

03:16:12

No emargo! So everything you're reading here is pretty much hot off the press. Hopefully the internet connection will stay good - it's been alright so far, but from past experience I know these things easily go down.

03:16:27

Mark Lamia, Studio Head at Treyarch is now on the stage.

03:19:10

Looks like the internet might die a lot. You haven't missed much yet though, Lamia is just saying how this is the best game Treyarch has created yet. A given really.

03:21:33

Dan Bunting and David Vanderhaar have now taken to the stage, the multiplayer leads on the game. They're going to show us some live multiplayer straight from the game.

03:21:59

Apologies again for the radio silence guys, internet is being a bit of a bitch.

03:24:16

Ok, so we're strolling through an indoor environment before entering the snowy cold of outside. He's racked up a five kill streak, not with real players, but with AI bots. Of sort. They're calling it Combat Training. Remember that.

03:25:04

Apparently the mode is for gamers who are put off by the (admittedly frightening) world of the online.

03:25:47

They're talking us through three themes by the way; compete, customise and create.

03:26:30

You'll be able to create a class, and the perks you select will directly affect the appearance of your character in game.

03:27:46

Righty then: kill streaks!

03:28:22

Apparently they'll have more player interaction than before. We're about to be shown the death machine, and the frime reaper.

03:29:42

The death machine is a gatling gun of sorts, while the Grim Reaper is a rocket based weapon. There's also a gunship being shown, raining a storm of bullets down onto the level, a mortar team and sometihng called a Sam Turret

03:31:27

Dan is now talking about money, or CoD Points, a currency allowing players to unlock better skills and equipment. Another new feature comes in the form of Contracts, a special type of mission that allows players to undertake a specific taks, and then be rewarded appropriately.

03:32:50

Next up: Wager Match. Matches that allow players to gamble their hard earned CoD points. You gamble on whether you'll be in the top three players, and if you are -- you'll win money!

03:36:38

Next up is a video with the lovely title of Gun Porn. It's covering the second theme of this evening's presentation; customisation.

03:37:33

The video shows guns with different symbols and markings on them. A method for distinguishing between different teams and clans.

03:41:17

Ugh, internet is really trying to ruin my evening. You can create your own emblems using an emblem editor. You can scale, move, rotate flip and change the colour of an image, which can then be placed on your gun.

03:42:07

All games played on live can be recorded and then viewed back in a theatre mode. Looked pretty cool.

03:43:26

....and that's it. That's it!? No huge announcements to be honest, but the new game modes do look pretty interesting. I was expecting something a little more megaton, but there you go.

03:43:55

I'll try and keep you guys posted on what's happening via Twitter and the like, but for now I best make a move.

03:45:24

Thanks again for staying up, I'll collate everything from this evenings presentation into a more digestable form later on this evening. But for now, goodbye!

I bet you're glad you paid all that money for a run of the mill announcement. Nice trip to LA, Jamin? Honestly, how Treyarch and Activision think that they can pull off a stunt like this and for it to not backfire on them in some sort of way is beyond me.

If they start charging for Black Ops then Modern Warfare 2 isn't going anywhere :laugh: unless they decide to stop supporting it. If this happens I'll just switch back to Halo and be cool on that instead.